Box rotator attachment



Feb. 14, 1961 Filed Dec. 30, 1957 FIG. I

E. J. DUNHAM 2,971,662

BOX ROTATOR ATTACHMENT 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR.

ELMER J. DUNHAM ATT Y.

Feb. 14, 1961 DUNHAM 2,971,662

BOX ROTATQR ATTACHMENT Filed Dec. 30, 1957 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 1 36 1 vIIILEUIIJ rfi 37,

FIG. 6

INVENTOR.

ELMER J. DUNHAM ATTY.

Feb. 14, 1961 E. J. DUNHAM BOX ROTATOR ATTACHMENT 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 FiledDec. 30, 1957 FIG. 5

INVENTOR.

ELMER J. DUNHAM Y M 5% v 8 ATTY.

UnitedStates Patent O BOX ROTATOR ATTACHMENT Elmer J. Dunham, BattleCreek, Mich., assignor to Clark Equipment Company, a corporation ofMichigan Filed Dec. 30, 1957, Ser. No. 706,025

1 Claim. (Cl. 214313) This invention relates, in general, to mobilematerial handling equipment such as industrial lift trucks and, inparticular, to a new and improved box rotator attachment for such truckswhereby a box, such as loaded fruit boxes and the like, may be picked upand transported to a selected location, to be rotated to dump itscontents.

Accordingly, a general object of this invention is the provision of anew and improved box rotator attachment for industrial lift trucks.

Still another general object of this invention is a new and improved boxrotator attachment for industrial lift trucks whereby the attachmentenables the picking up and transporting of loaded fruit boxes and thelike from one location to another and rotating the boxes to dump theircontents.

I propose to accomplish these general objects by the provision of aU-shaped box rotator attachment for an industrial lift truck havingadjustable arms for handling boxes of different sizes, each of which isprovided with a rotatable box handling means. Such rotatable boxhandling means cooperates with a box to be lifted such that when the boxis lifted by the box rotator attachment, the box may be locked in itselevated position and may be rotated to dump its contents in apro-selected location. The handling means are further provided with ameans tending to pull the arms toward one another as the box is lifted,thus holding the box in its elevated position safely, and is furtherprovided with a means permitting the drainage of any foreign matter fromthe handling means which might otherwise collect therein.

Accordingly, still another object of my invention is the provision of animproved box carrier equipment adapted to be attached to an industriallift truck and having complementary parts by means of which throughpower control from the lift truck, a box or the like may be lifted,rotated, etc., with facility.

Still another object of my invention is the provision of a box rotatorattachment for an industrial lift truck having rotatable handling meansfor lifting a box, locking and rotating it when lifted, to dump itscontents in a selected location.

Another and more specific object of my invention is the provision of asafety means in lifting devices of this type whereby the arms of a boxrotator attachment tend to be pulled towards one another as the box islifted to safely secure the box when elevated.

Still another object of my invention is the provision of a meanspermitting the drainage of the foreign matter from the handling means ofa box rotator attachment for an industrial lift truck.

Other and more particular objects of my invention will be apparent tothose skilled in the art from the following description and drawingsforming a part hereof and wherein:

Fig. 1 is a semi-schematic elevational view of the box rotatorattachment mounted on a conventional lift truck constructed inaccordance with the teachings of my invention and illustrating toadvantage a box elevated and rotated to dump the contents of the box;

Fig. 2 is a respective view, partially broken away, illustrating toadvantage the details of my box rotator attachment;

Fig. 3 is a plan view illustrating to advantage the positioning of mybox rotator attachment with respect to a box to be lifted;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged side detail view of one of the arms of my boxrotator attachment as illustrated in the preceding figures, showing toadvantage the details of the rotatable box handling means;

Fig. 5 is a cross-sectional plan view of the enlarged detail showing ofFig. 4, taken along line 55 of Fig. 4, and looking in the direction ofthe arrows; and

Fig. 6 is a front elevational view of the box rotator means.

Turning now to Fig. 1 of the drawings, there is illustrated my new andimproved box rotator attachment,

illustrated in its entirety as 10, suitably attached to, the verticalupright or mast 11 of a wheel mounted lift truck 12 having suitablemeans to raise, lower and hold the box rotator attachment 10 as well asto adjust upright 11 about its vertical axis. Since the details of theconstruction of the truck 12 and upright 11 are known and can beconventional, no further detailed description hereof is deemed necessaryherein; such construction being merely illustrated for the purpose ofshowing to advantage the typical installation of my box rotatingattachment in a mobile material handling device.

Turning now to Figs. 2 and 3, where my box rotator attachment 10 isillustrated in more detail, my attachment can be seen to comprise aU-shaped member having a pair of adjustable arms 13 and 14 separated bya crossbar means 15 includes means illustrated schematically as 16 inFig. 3 for mounting the attachment 10 to the upright 11 illustrated inFig. l, and further includes a pair of oppositely acting power actuatedpistons 17, actuated from the power available in the lift truck (oneshown), suitably seated on the cross-bar means 15 and operativelyconnected to arms 13 and 14 to move the arms outwardly or inwardly withrespect to each other, thus adjusting the separation of the armsaccording to the width of the box to be lifted such as for box 18 asillustrated in Fig. 3. To provide stability for the arms and to movablyattach the same to the cross-bar means 15, arms 13 and 14 and cross-barmeans 15 are provided with a telescopic channel member 20 and 21.

At the outer end of each adjusting arm 13 and 14, there is provided arotatable handling means 22 and 23, each having an arm 24 and 25extending upwardly beyond the upper edge of the arms 13 and 14 andhaving another arm 26 and 27 extending outwardly beyond the ends of thearms 13 and 14, to thus form an L-shaped member wherein arms 24 and 25form stop members and arms 26 and 27 form guide means; the arms 26 and27 being conveniently curved outwardly as illustrated at 23 and 30 toguide the arms with respect to the box 18 as illustrated in Fig. 3.

At the apex of each of the L-shaped stop and guide arms 24, 26-25, 27,there is provided a circular rotator, as illustrated in Fig. 2 inconnection with handling means 23, of the same thickness as the stop andguide arms and rotatable in a substantially circular slot 32 opening atthe top as illustrated at 33. Rotator 31 is provided with a squarelocking slot 34 opening at one end as illustrated at 35 to receive atrunnion 36 of the box 18 as will be explained. The trunnion 36, beingsubstantially cubical or of a substantially parallelepipedconfiguration, is suitably afiixed to the side 37 of the box 18 andcentrally thereof for the purpose of being received in the locking slot34, handling means 22 being also provided with a 3 locking slot tocooperate with trunnion 38 afiixed to the side 40 opposite to side 37.

Thus, in operation, the box rotator attachment 10 is lowered by theoperator to substantially ground level or at least below the level ofthetrunnions .36 and 38, and preferably slightly spaced from the sides ofthe box as illustrated in Fig. 3. Movement of the attachment 10 to theright as shown in Fig. 3 will cause the stop arms 24 and 26 to engagethe trunnions 36 and 38. Lifting of the attachment upwardly will causethe trunnions to seat in the locking slots of each of the arms 13, 14;the locking slots each being chamfered as illustrated at 41 inconnection with slot 34 to effect theseating of the trunnion in theslots, at which time the truck 12 is free to transport the box fromplace to place. 'When the truck reaches a pre-selected location, therotators will rotate the box as illustrated in Fig. 1 so that thecontents thereof may be dumped.

Turning now to Figs. 4, and 6 which illustrate an arm 14, it can be seenthat the arm 14 is provided with a power actuated piston means 42actuated by power available in the lift truck, the piston rod 43 ofwhich is radially connected to one end of a curved crank arm 44 which inturn, is fixedly mounted on a rotatable shaft 45 by any suitable meansas by a bolt coupling means 46.

The crang arm 44, being radially disposed outwardly of the center of theshaft as illustrated in Fig. 4, will cause rotation of the shaft 45 uponextension of a piston rod 42 as illustrated in the dotted lines of Fig.4 and since one end of the shaft is fixedly attached to the rotator 31,rotation of the shaft causes rotation of the rotator as previouslyexplained. Suitable bearing means, such as illustrated, may be providedfor the shaft.

As hereinbefore mentioned, one important feature of .this invention isthe ability of the adjustable arms 13 and 14 to move inwardly inresponse to the inward movement of the side walls of the box whichmovement may happen in the event the box is heavily loaded. Toaccomplish this safety feature, each locking slot is provided withinwardly beveled edges 47, 48, respectively, as illustrated in Fig. 6 tocorrespond with similarly beveled edges on the base of the trunnions 36,38, as illustrated at 50, 51, respectively. According to the invention,the arm actuating piston means 17 are de-energized or relieved ofpressure after the trunnions are received in the locking slots, wherebythe arms are then free to move toward and away from one another as maybe dictated by movement of the trunnions, the cooperating andcomplementary beveled or wedge surfaces of the trunnions and slotscausing the arms to follow the trunnions. In this manner, the movementof the sides of the box inwardly will cause movement of the arms 13 or14 inwardly, as a safety feature, when the box is elevated so that thetrunnions a 4 will not slip off the arms in the direction transverselyof the arms.

Also, as mentioned, another important feature of this invention is themeans of draining the locking slots of foreign material or matter toeffect eflicient operation of this device. To perform this function,drainage slots 52, 53, each having a beveled edge such as 54, 55, areprovided in the base of each of the locking slots as illustrated inFigs. 4 and 6. The beveled edges 54, are inclined toward the box thuspermitting foreign matter to be drained out of the locking slot.

Wherein the various parts of my invention have'been referred to aslocated in a right or left or an upper or lower or an inward or outwardposition, it will be understood that this is done solely for the purposeof facilitating description and that such references relate only to therelative positions of the parts as shown in the drawmgs. v

- Also, it is to be understood that many changes and modifications maybe made without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention andthe invention is defined and comprehended solely by the appended claimwhich should be construed as broadly as the prior art will permit.

I claim; a

In material handling means comprising a box having trunnions on itssides, a lift truck including laterally movable arms disposed toopposite sides of thebox and having trunnion receiving members thereon,means for moving said arms toward'and away from one another for engagingsaid members with said trunnions, and means for rotating said membersfor dumping the box, the improvement comprising that said means formoving said arms is normally de-energized when said trunnions arepositioned in said members, said trunnions at the lower sides thereofare inclined downwardly and outwardly relative to the box, and thetrunnion receiving members at their upper sides have an inclinationcomplementary to that of the lower sides of the trunnions therebydefining complementary wedge surfaces between each trunnion and itsreceiving member for causing said arms to move conjointly with saidtrunnions upon deflection of the sides of said box and for preventingthe trunnions from dropping off the arms in a direction transversely ofthe arms.

,References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,413,661 Stokes Dec. 31, 1946 2,812,089 Purpura Nov. 5, 1957 2,823,061Pottorf Feb. 11, 1958 2,860,797 Wilcox Nov. 18, 1958

